1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of telecommunications, and more specifically to the optimization and utilization of telecommunication resources between two or more different administrative domains to realize inter-provider Internet Protocol (IP) telecommunication services.
2. Description of Related Art
Service providers have been struggling to find means to reduce operational and capital expenses, and improve revenue streams. These challenges have been magnified by the explosive growth in Internet traffic resulting in an exponential demand for Internet Protocol (IP) networks and its services. This has put even more pressure on service providers to bring in additional revenue from their networks, reduce costs of operating the network and minimize capital expenses. Additionally, the fact that access services and backbone transit have emerged to become low-margin commodity services has compounded the problem even further.
In the past few years, there has been a growing demand and need for IP end user applications. Examples of these applications include e-commerce, instant messaging, voice chat, video conferencing, corporate virtual private networks, long-distance IP telephony, mobile email, web support centers and many others.
IP applications require two main ingredients to operate and function effectively. The first ingredient is network services that interoperate with IP applications and provide intelligence for the IP applications to utilize the transport layer of the network. Examples of network services are VPNs, policy routing, quality of service (QoS), dynamic network provisioning, customization, secured traffic, multicasting, network mobility, caching and availability. The second ingredient is an intelligent infrastructure that can be controlled by network services to yield the optimum and most efficient environment for IP applications to be realized and valued.
In today's business environment, IP applications are end-to-end, which means that these applications span multiple service providers. However, inter-provider services offered today do not offer end-to-end service quality guarantees. As IP service providers start offering new IP applications to their end subscribers and deploy IP service switches on the edge of their networks, the demand for inter-provider IP services becomes increasingly important. Lack of such inter-provider IP service guarantees reduces the value of the IP applications offered to end users.
In addition, provisioning inter-provider IP services is a cumbersome task and involves a huge amount of time and resources. It can easily take weeks and months to provision an end-to-end service spanning multiple providers. Since service provider networks are configured and built separate from one another, inter-provider IP services require custom business and technology transactions between all service providers involved. This requirement makes the process of supplying inter-provider IP services a cumbersome and time consuming process as one-to-one deals and configurations have to be developed. Furthermore, resource availability information is usually not available in real-time, and hence resources could be left unutilized.
Moreover, infrastructure nodes are typically static with no adaptive reconfigurable capabilities, which can prevent providers from exercising or implementing customized business and networking relations across their borders. For example, traditional Internet routers or switches currently do not allow providers to control inter-provider relations or to effectively provision services across their networks due to the lack of inter-provider management tools and lack of intelligence in the hardware to adapt and fulfill inter-provider business requirements.
At the same time, the fixed Internet business model, where customers pay a flat fee for access, has not proven to be successful and has resulted in poor reciprocal compensation models between service providers. Models currently in use do not reflect the value, quality, market demand, or priority of a service, nor do these models take into account the availability of network resources and the dynamic changes of the market. This static model has resulted in marginal profit margins (if any) and lack of true value to the end user.
It can be easily noted that the issues discussed above are factors that directly contribute to higher operating and capital costs. In addition, inefficient utilization of existing IP resources, such as routing information, capacity, quality of service, security and many other resources that could become huge and innovative sources of revenue also severely inhibits the growth of service providers. Furthermore, the legal, financial, technical, marketing and operational risks service providers have to deal with today are enormous and diverse.
What is needed is a system and method for provisioning IP services across service providers in a cost-effective and efficient manner. In addition, what is needed is a system and method for improving the quality of IP services provisioned across service providers, thereby increasing the value of end user IP applications. Furthermore, what is needed is a method and process for provisioning IP services across service providers to create new sources of revenue to service providers, while mitigating the risks to the service providers.